Note 70 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 2)

The cows have likewise been imported from France, and are of the size of our common Swedish cows. Every body agreed that the cattle, which were born of the original French breed, never grow up to the same size. This they ascribe to the cold winters, during which they are obliged to put their cattle into stables, and give them but little food. Almost all the cows have horns, a few, however, I have seen without them. A cow without horns would be reckoned an unheard of curiosity in Pensylvania. Is not this to be attributed to the cold? The cows give as much milk here as in France. The beef and veal at Quebec, is reckoned fatter and more palatable than at Montreal. Some look upon the salty pastures below Quebec, as the cause of this difference. But this does not seem sufficient; for most of the cattle, which are sold at Quebec, have no meadows with Arrow-headed grass70, on which they graze. In Canada the oxen draw with the horns, but in the English colonies they draw with their withers, as horses do. The cows vary in colour; however, most of them are either red, or black.